Lfs worried about internet ruining their business
- Thread starter wild bill
- Start date
River front I think it is on Barlow trail. The only store I've seen dovi,trimac and the likes in we thought he would have liked some of our fenestratus but maybe we were already blackballed.
I have good lfs then there is bad ones... There is big als and petsmart (2) in my city... In my city the petsmart is only good for Product, very good prices... Fish are terrible and employees are idiots lol. Big als, well its a fish store, but priced on product to high but good fish and good knowledge.... There are two lfs that only have the basics, they suck I never go there... There is also a FULL saltwater store, BUT THEY ARE ONLINE ALSO. Most of their buis is online... Great store tho. I go to big als, or the 1 lfs that is over half fish. They will order you fish, cut you good deals. its a great store.
It all depends on the stores, I see soon that big box's will slowly lower nuber of fish and reptiles, specialty stores like big als and incredibleaquariums.com will thrive. For the independent store it is up to how they wish to do buisness... IF Im looking for a fish, I liek to go to my fav local fish store ask them to order me one, when it comes in they hold it for a week make sure its good then i buy it... yea they make some cash off me but saves me some time and effort also I dont mind supporting them because I allways have a good experince there.
It all depends on the stores, I see soon that big box's will slowly lower nuber of fish and reptiles, specialty stores like big als and incredibleaquariums.com will thrive. For the independent store it is up to how they wish to do buisness... IF Im looking for a fish, I liek to go to my fav local fish store ask them to order me one, when it comes in they hold it for a week make sure its good then i buy it... yea they make some cash off me but saves me some time and effort also I dont mind supporting them because I allways have a good experince there.
Online stores will and already are killing all business. Lfs sells bio wheels at $80.00 a pop for the penguin 350, amazon sells them for $28.00 brand new. Lfs can't compete with that and neither can I. Unfortunately I can't justify spending an extra $50 on a item just to keep locals in business. Times are tough and every penny counts. The fish hobby is not a ever revolving hobby either. Sure, us monster keepers tend to keep buying fish for the rarity when they hit the market, or for fun, but most novice keepers do not. My dad had the same few fish for years! The only thing he ever bought was fish food from the stores. If your Lfs wants to stay relevant and have a fighting chance they need to expand and hit the online market.
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In my area (albany,ny) most people are ok with buying jags, jds, midevils and your very common stuff and paying way too much for it. A lot don't wanna or know about the online fish option. I used to trade with the lfs a lot but stopped because they had no clue of some of the fish I had and low balled me.
For example
I walked into said store(no name so I don't hurt them in any way) and said I was looking to trade a few fish. They said we don't trade unless its rare or worth it to sell in their store. I had a large redhead cichlid(11 inches), my female grammodes cichlid(wasn't gonna trade, they just wanted to know what I had), a 8 inch pure red devil.
Their response
We will take the redhead and give you $20 trade since we haven't seen one in years.( I didn't care as I got it for free, but not sure how they went years without seeing one and he said it was rare. Told me the grammodes was an african cichlid he had never seen before. I told him no its not african. He then said well it looks like a type of texas cichlid and they had one so didn't want it.(I laughed). Said the red devil was very common and he had 2 already.(they were midevils) said if I wanted to get rid of the devil and grammodes he would take them for free and see if they would sell.( I said no thanks)
This store had no knowledge of dovii, umbee, how to tell a true red terror from a mayan,and didn't know about the online buying or higher quality fish. I told them I hadn't bought a fish from a store in a few years unless it was used as a dither.
I would much rather spend $20 on shipping from rapps then drive the 20 mins to the mom and pop stores. Like right now I really want a high quality umbee. Rapps has 5 incher for $25 and $20 next day shipping. What a deal!!! I'm hooked to online buying for fish and supplies.
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For example
I walked into said store(no name so I don't hurt them in any way) and said I was looking to trade a few fish. They said we don't trade unless its rare or worth it to sell in their store. I had a large redhead cichlid(11 inches), my female grammodes cichlid(wasn't gonna trade, they just wanted to know what I had), a 8 inch pure red devil.
Their response
We will take the redhead and give you $20 trade since we haven't seen one in years.( I didn't care as I got it for free, but not sure how they went years without seeing one and he said it was rare. Told me the grammodes was an african cichlid he had never seen before. I told him no its not african. He then said well it looks like a type of texas cichlid and they had one so didn't want it.(I laughed). Said the red devil was very common and he had 2 already.(they were midevils) said if I wanted to get rid of the devil and grammodes he would take them for free and see if they would sell.( I said no thanks)
This store had no knowledge of dovii, umbee, how to tell a true red terror from a mayan,and didn't know about the online buying or higher quality fish. I told them I hadn't bought a fish from a store in a few years unless it was used as a dither.
I would much rather spend $20 on shipping from rapps then drive the 20 mins to the mom and pop stores. Like right now I really want a high quality umbee. Rapps has 5 incher for $25 and $20 next day shipping. What a deal!!! I'm hooked to online buying for fish and supplies.
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In situations like that I would pass up on the mom and pop stores too.
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This equals just about every lfs within 100 miles of me. I think this applies to just about every lfs in the US though.
